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Today I’m starting a series I’ve been mulling for a long time now: going through each of Weird Al’s albums and ranking the songs in the order I like them. (Sorry, mom – this series won’t interest you much, I’m afraid!)

When I think about things that have been an influence on my appreciation for comedy, Weird Al Yankovic is in the top five. (Other influences: Bill Cosby, the Muppets, Steve Martin, and ComedySportz.)  I don’t even remember when I first heard of him or who introduced me to his work (though I’m guessing it was either Eric or Josh), but I remember taking to him right away. Al parodies pop culture – music, mostly, but he tends to hit most areas – in ways that are both humorous and honoring. He might be making fun of TV, but you can tell he likes the stuff he’s poking fun at. He also parodies in what I would call a “gentle” way. He’s rarely mean towards his subjects, and he always asks permission of the artists before parodying their songs.

It’s funny to me that I have mostly experienced Weird Al/pop culture backwards from his intention. His songs generally rely on a person knowing either the song he’s rewritten or the topic to which he’s referring. Most of his music Is stuff I’ve heard before I’ve heard the originals he’s spoofing. In fact, there’ve been several things I’ve found out about through him that I’ve gone on to enjoy in their own right.

So. His first album was released in 1983 and it was called “‘Weird Al’ Yankovic.” I’ll list the songs in the order I like them, from least to most. Keep in mind that I still like most all of his songs, I just like some of them more.

12. Gotta Boogie – Ugh. One of my least favorite of all his songs.  It’s a disco/booger joke that gets old quick. I dislike gross humor, and I dislike this song.

11. Such a Groovy Guy – I can appreciate the 70s-ishness of the main character of this song and appreciate the skewering of that sort of guy, but I dislike the character enough that it affects my enjoyment of the song.

10. The Check’s in the Mail – A song full of “business speak” that still holds up today, really. Add a couple of “proactive”s and “think outside the box”s and it would fit right in.

9. I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead – When I was younger I liked this song more.  “Let’s go be crazy!” was a common thought I had as a teen. Now that I’m older, I’m more of a “Let’s chill out” kind of guy.

8. Buckingham Blues – The story of Prince Charles and Princess Diana,  set to the blues. A great song, but too sad to enjoy anymore since we saw how that story ended.

7. I Love Rocky Road – Classic. Al sings a lot of food songs over the course of the next 30 years, as you’ll see. This one only suffers a little bit because it’s hard to match the key change in the middle parts when you’re singing along.

6. Another One Rides the Bus – This song may be why I don’t like riding public transportation of any sort.

5. Stop Draggin’ My Car Around – I’ve come to love the song this one’s a parody of, so this one’s gotten higher on the list over the years. When I hear the original, though, I sing the words to this one.  That… actually happens a lot with most songs Al has covered.

4. Happy Birthday – Synopsis: go ahead and have a happy birthday even though terrible things are happening all over the world! Darkly hilarious.

3. Ricky – I Love Lucy in convenient catchy song form.

2. My Bologna – One of Al’s first big hits, and one of many that’s better than the original song. Also: another food song.

1. Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung – Another terribly dark song that has always amused me way more than it should. Poor Mr. Frump.

There are 12 more albums left to go. I’m curious to see if at the end of it I can put together my top ten favorite songs or put the albums in order.  We shall see!

Q: Truthfully, Jean-Luc. I have been entirely preoccupied by a most frightening experience of my own. A couple of hours ago, I started realizing this body was no longer functioning properly… I felt weak, the life oozing out of me… I could no longer stand… and then I lost consciousness!

PICARD: You fell asleep.

Q: It’s terrifying! How can you stand it day after day?

PICARD: One gets used to it.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m currently working my way through Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix. The above exchange come from the 13th episode of Season 3, “Déjà Q.”

Q has been stripped of his powers by the Continuum, and requested to be sent to the Enterprise, knowing full well Captain Picard would feel obligated to protect him, even though Q has done nothing but cause the Enterprise grief time and time again. Sure enough, some races that Q has wronged in the past come looking for him, and Captain Picard protects him and Q learns a valuable lesson and is reinstated into the Continuum.

But before all that, Q is adjusting to life as a human being. He doesn’t like it. It’s not just the lack of his powers, it’s the whole business of being human that he objects to, and his reaction to humanity’s many “faults” is amusing. His unfamiliarity with sleep, though, amuses me to no end.

Sleep is such an odd thing! Several hours where you have no idea what’s going on, and we all do it and act like it’s not weird. It totally is!

Anyway, I love Q’s summation of it, so I wanted to share it with you.

*Technically it’s a TV quote, but that breaks the categories, so nertz.

I am fascinated by celebrity culture.

Now, don’t take that the wrong way. I’m don’t care so much about which celebs are getting married, or who’s having a baby, or who recently had hair plugs installed. Some of that stuff tends to filter through just because it passes for “news” these days, but I’m not scouring the tabloids and soaking it all in.

I’m more interested in the whole concept of celebrity: how it happens, why it happens, who it happens to, what causes it to fade. There’s good celebrity and bad celebrity. Some people have it for a long time, some barely have it for a Warholian fifteen minutes. Some people work their whole lives to get it, some people don’t want it but get it anyway. Some people work hard to get it and then realize they hate having it when they finally get it.  There’s different circles of celebrity, and a someone everyone knows in a particular circle might be completely unheard of outside it.

I also find it fascinating how non-famous people react to celebrities.  There are the fans who cling to every last thing their particular celebrity does or says. Any clothes, perfumes, or product the celebrity puts their name on gets automatically desired. Any thing the celebrity does that is questionable, even to a high degree, is explained away and accepted, even if it’s behavior that you wouldn’t put up with from your best friend.  On the other hand, you’ve got people who hate and resent celebrity in most forms.  In their eyes, the celeb doesn’t deserve any of the fame because they’re a no-talent, vacuous, not-as-attractive-as-people-think jerk who wouldn’t give you the time of day if you saw them.

I don’t generally begrudge anyone’s celebrity. Sure, there are plenty of people who got famous for terrible, terrible reasons, but the way I figure it, they always have a chance to redeem themselves. I guess it’s because I’ve been forgiven over and over again that I feel most people should also be given that chance.  So while I might enjoy it that a movie might tank if it has an actor in it that I don’t particularly enjoy, that’s different from wishing they were cast into the sun. I also tend to feel sadness for actors “in trouble.”  I sense a sort of glee in people when celebrities fail, even if they fail over and over again. And, sure, some of them may be awful people, but even if most of them were, I think they still deserve pity.

I don’t have any great finishing thoughts here, I just find the whole celebrity thing very interesting.